


crema

by yuedemao



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Exes, Getting Back Together, M/M, or not really, yet?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:35:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28280247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuedemao/pseuds/yuedemao
Summary: Zhangjing meets his ex again in his worst look. Twitter could only share bits of information.
Relationships: Lin Yanjun/You Zhangjing
Kudos: 7
Collections: Cloud 9 Holiday Drabbles





	crema

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ramenree](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ramenree/gifts).



> Hello Ree I got your prompt so I could give you a little something for Christmas!!!!
> 
> I wish everyone who reads a Merry Christmas and I hope no one's alone today (let people pester you a bit and get away with it)!!!!

**your zhangjing** _@zjonlyfans_ · 5m  
I wouldn’t be doing this if you weren’t sick @hmh_bieber

> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 4m  
>  @zjonlyfans dw, clown suits u :P thanks for covering for me luv u

For some people, Christmas is the perfect time for families' whole bloodline to reunite, or for friends to go out and spend time together while away from home. For Zhangjing, it’s neither of the two; it’s been years since he left Malaysia to pursue his dreams, and nobody told him that chasing your dreams was just a sugar-coated way to say you had to gamble with everything you have to be happy, only for a higher chance to be left with nothing.

"You had one day off but still ended up here, huh?" His boss was kind enough to grant him the holiday off, but just like everything else in his life, today doesn't end up the way he hoped it will be. He just had four tasks for himself: sleep in, maybe get a pizza delivered, nap again, and try to last the night with his earphones on to drown out the Christmas carols. But Justin was sick, which is somewhat worse for the kid than having to work his shift. Zhangjing doesn't think much before agreeing to cover for a sick friend, and in fact thinks he's a good friend, earning him that double pay today.

**your zhangjing** _@zjonlyfans_ · 2m  
Joker for Christmas because my life is a joke

> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 2m  
>  @zjonlyfans ?????? it's not a halloween party ???????
> 
> **your zhangjing** _@zjonlyfans_ · now  
>  @hmh_bieber mind your own business and get some rest

Most of the guests are coming in groups for their Christmas dinners while some silently look for empty booths in pairs. It wasn't supposed to make him sad or feel anything, but even if the restaurant was full of chatter, and satisfied customers would sincerely thank him for the meal, he felt terribly out of place. Maybe it's just the cold seeping through his loose costume, or the awareness that their smiles meant more than his fake smiley make-up.

 _No one is supposed to be alone_.

Yes, it must be the Joker get-up around the reindeer and fairies and Santa's elves. Even the the other waitress that dressed up as Elsa belonged here, a polystyrene Olaf stuck on her back that both children and their parents laughed about.

"Hey."

Zhangjing felt the air knocked out of him.

Standing in front of the register was Yanjun. Lin Yanjun, with eyes that bore into his soul then and until now. Lin Yanjun, with hair as soft and silver as the garlands he used to keep and put around the curtain rods of their shared apartment when it's Chritmas season. Lin Yanjun─

Lin Yanjun is alone, too.

"Hey."

**your zhangjing** _@zjonlyfans_ · 9m  
I can't do this no I don't want to why do I have to

> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 6m  
>  @zjonlyfans shift over??????? if u have nothing to do take care of me!!!!
> 
> **your zhangjing** _@zjonlyfans_ · 1m  
>  @hmh_bieber can't. I hope you're right when you said clown suits me
> 
> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · now  
>  @zjonlyfans ???????

"Aren't you going to take it off?"

Zhangjing forgot to, which is stupid because he's not the type to leave products on his face, but he's not going to embarrass himself further by admitting that. Yanjun just showing up at his workplace shocked him to the core and he just knows how horrible he looked like, even more now that he's wearing casual clothes under his puffy jacket: his whole face was still painted white, with a blotch of black around both of his eyes, and to top it all off was the huge, crazy red grin painted on his lips up to his cheeks. "I'll do it at home."

"I was thinking if we could get coffee."

No, even if he didn't look ridiculous right now, Zhangjing wouldn't want to go with him and sip coffee like they were two friends chilling, one seat apart because they're not gay. "I can't."

"I figured."

Yanjun does not look at him, not that he was looking at him, he just happened to see Yanjun's reflection on the parked cars' tinted windows as they walked. Now that coffee is off the list, Zhangjing himself wonders where they are going, the other simply following his every step, which would eventually lead them both to his home─ “I’m going home.”

He was supposed to be home. Zhangjing rarely found comfort in anything but sleeping the holiday would have been close. Yet here he was, his ex on his side, walking with him after work as if it was the most normal thing in the world. “I’m going home and you can just forget you saw me. You don’t owe me this. You don’t owe me anything.”

“Or I could go with you.” It always looked like Yanjun never cared, with the way his gaze gave him shivers from the very first time they met, but Zhangjing has seen more than the tip of the iceberg. How Yanjun refrained from talking too much, how he frowns instead of complaining and how he smiles to express his gratitude, how he kept his heart locked away so as not to let out the words that would attach people to him. Zhangjing knocked and knocked until he was let in and knew it all. “ _You_ owe me this, at least.”

**just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 8m  
DID HE JUST- ?????????

> **justin time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 7m  
>  they look serious :eyes:
> 
> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 5m  
>  ok im christmas eavesdropping :pepe_santa:

“He’s my house mate.”

Yanjun smiles. “Glad you aren’t alone, then.”

His hand stops for a second, but he quickly regains his composure and starts stirring the cup with a coffee spoon, the creamer slowly turning the hot liquid a soft brown. “We don’t have sweeteners.”

“I can’t─ I don’t take sweeteners now.”

Zhangjing’s a little relieved his back was turned, or else he’ll crumble right there with the guilt for not knowing─ perhaps even the guilt for leaving years ago without saying goodbye, only to meet him again after so many years that was enough to even change how he liked his coffee.

“I'm sorry," _Nobody is supposed to be alone._ "Your coffee. I'm─ I need to wash my face. Just leave it when you're done." _But if I ask you not to leave, would you?_

>   
>  **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 12h  
>  i can't hear them from here :sob:
> 
> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 12h  
>  am i seeing what i think im seeing or is my fever making me see things

> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · 1m  
>  KSKSKSSKSKSKS @zjonlyfans u hoe!!!!
> 
> **your zhangjing** _@zjonlyfans_ · 1m  
>  @hmh_bieber what do you want? meds?
> 
> **just in time** _@hmh_bieber_ · now  
>  @zjonlyfans ????? u brought santa home on christmas eve and went naughty with him in ugly clown make-up i dont need meds i need ANSWERS

  
It's a tad too early to get up but Zhangjjng needed to check up on his house mate, especially since the younger's been tweeting non-stop the night before and has started doing it again; the incessant buzzing of his phone was getting annoying.

He knocks. "Justin, did you take your meds?'

"I told you on twitter─"

"I _did not_ go naughty with him."

"You were making out! I saw with my own virgin eyes!"

"You're imagining things."

The door opens, and Justin practically shoved his phone in Zhangjing's face.

  
**Lin Yanjun** ✿ _@Real_LYJ_ · now  
If home is where the heart is, then I'm finally back home. Merry Christmas.

> _[This media is not available because it includes content you've chosen not to see.]_  
>  👥 **your zhangjing**

Zhangjing has a lot of explaining to do during breakfast. But at least now he knows how the man slipping _his_ clothes in _his_ room likes his coffee.


End file.
